D&D General How Often Should a PC Die in D&D 5e?

[prabe]

The story of our lives is happening in real time. The rules we follow dictate the outcome of the story. Red lights, paying for stuff, social interaction, these are the rules that affect the course of the story just like the rules of the game we play.

Autobiographies are literally the story of someone’s life written by that person before they die.

Not to mention (non-auto) biographies written while the subjects are alive. Often after the subject has faded from relevance, yes, but not dead.

 

[Theory of Games]

I’ve got some bad news. Unless you are doing things to the players that could get you in serious trouble with law enforcement, it’s all Pretend anyway. Even if you have rules and dice. Those are tools you agree to use, but they don’t make deaths even 1% more real. Sorry to have to break it to you.

Who said anything about "real"? Pretend is a game with no dice and 1 rule: make it up. Playing Pretend is never deadly unless a player decides it to be. Not as deadly as running D&D even close to RAW

 

[adrianthebard]

5e is pretty heroic and has long chargen it's pretty hard on players to snap their pc's necks so most gms prefer kicking their asses rather than dumping their sheets altogether. my take is simply that pc's should die every time they deserve to. but given my premise about 5e i would still go with thrashing them instead, maybe doling out permanent debuffs if anything, there's better games for that higly lethal kind of play (Odnd, knave, lotfp etc etc)

 

[Autumnal]

Yes. The answer is yes.

Absolutely. I love that RPGs are an innately impure, hybrid kind of thing, with freedom for each group to mix and match as they wish.

 

[SkidAce]

But you don't know the story of someone's life until it's over, and trying to make a story out of your life generally doesn't happen before or during.

I could tell you the story of my life so far.

"Stay awhile, and listen..."

 

[Micah Sweet]

You don't know how the story ends until someone dies. Doesn't mean you don't know the story up until that point.

I still don't see it as a story. Life isn't about story beats and

I could tell you the story of my life so far.

"Stay awhile, and listen..."
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"No one ever stays to listen..."

 

[dave2008]

I still don't see it as a story. Life isn't about story beats and

That is really personal perspective though. I absolutely think real life is a story with story beats and such. The only question is whether or not someone is observing / telling that story.

 

[KYRON45]

I still don't see it as a story. Life isn't about story beats and

"No one ever stays to listen..."

Birth, death, success, failure, discovery, love, loss, change, happiness, sadness. Story beats one and all.
While I don't understand it at all, I do find your point of view interesting.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Birth, death, success, failure, discovery, love, loss, change, happiness, sadness. Story beats one and all.
While I don't understand it at all, I do find your point of view interesting.

My perspective is that we take what happens in our lives (in game or out) and make a story out of it, after it happens. We don't go in deciding we're in a story. It is emergent after events, not before.

 

[ezo]

My perspective is that we take what happens in our lives (in game or out) and make a story out of it, after it happens. We don't go in deciding we're in a story. It is emergent after events, not before.

Don't worry... I get it and agree.